His strokes matched the colour combination — crisp, and incredibly entertaining. Not too many righties play the conventional forehand with their left leg lagging, but that’s just the way the 97th ranked player in the world is, he seems to have made a career out of being different.

Not many know that Prodon beat Roger Federer at the Eddie Herr in Florida back in 1998, or that he is known as the ‘Federer of the Futures’, or that his name is pronounced Pruden. And unless Somdev Devvarman gets off to a most disastrous 2012, not many will either.

When Prodon walks out for his first-round game at the Chennai Open in front of a packed centre court stadium, the racquet and footwork will continue to remain unnoticed, his name unpronounced and reputation unknown. For 5800 eyes, if the game is sold out, will be fixed on Devvarman, ranked just 13 places better than the Frenchman and India’s greatest singles ‘hope’ since Ramesh Krishnan.

It’s just the way it is in Chennai, they love their home players and go to a great extent to prove it. Hundreds showed up on the first day of the new year to watch Rohan Bopanna lose his singles qualifier to Go Soeda. Thousands more will watch him pair up with Mahesh Bhupathi once the doubles begins.

Similarly, when Vishnu Vardhan and Yuki Bhambri walked out for a round of practice in the afternoon, half a dozen cameras and 30-odd spectators focussed on his moon balls, while Stanislas Wawrinka practiced in desolation.

Vardhan’s greatest achievement was a silver medal with Sania Mirza in the Asian Games mixed doubles, while the 312-ranked player’s finest hour was for his fighting loss to Kei Nishikori (the Japanese lad who beat Djokovic) in the Davis Cup last year. Given a wild card for this tournament as ‘India’s emerging hope’ at 24, Vardhan versus Ivan Dodig is the prime time match on Monday, soon after Bhambri (wild card No.2) takes on Slovakia’s Karol Beck. The tickets are said to be selling well.

This love for Indian players is a two-way street. Speaking to the press on Sunday, Leander Paes said: “I’ve reached that stage of my career when I’m not motivated by the smaller tournaments. All I look forward to are the Grand Slams and the Olympics.” This was a minute after he had said, “I love coming to the Chennai Open. The crowds here have motivated me through the years.”

Umpteenth split